No vehicle is as synonymous with both reliability and affordability as a Toyota. Once known for their utter utilitarian design, Toyota has come a long way in making their vehicles more stylish and comfortable to drive.
They sure have succeeded in that but the core values of the brand have stayed the same since the brand entered the car manufacturing market. In more recent years, the Japanese automaker has also strived towards making fuel-efficient vehicles as well as some of the safest on the market. Even the resale value of a Toyota has gone up.
Advantages of Installing a Body Kit
Efficiency
While not its main purpose, a body kit can help your Toyota become even more efficient, especially at higher speeds. That’s because body kits give your car a more aerodynamic profile which creates less drag. Essentially, these Toyota performance parts help make your car more slippery as less air affects its acceleration.
Performance
Because body kits are such a straightforward solution they also help improve vehicle performance. While this isn’t anything drastic it sure does help with other performance upgrades you might want to add further down the road. Just make sure you get the right kit for this to work – more on that later.
Handling
Even with the least notable type of body kit on your Toyota, you can improve its handling. Be it accelerating on the straight or going into corners at higher speeds than usual, a body kit will make your car feel steadier than before.
Appearance
Last but not least, these Toyota performance car parts can also help make your car look much more appealing. If you like making your daily driver look sportier, then a body kit is probably the most affordable way to do so, depending on the material the trim pieces are made of.
Types of Body Kits
Lip
If you’re new to the world of aftermarket Toyota parts, then you are probably best off going with a lip kit. Lip kits usually come with only a front lip which is a narrow piece of plastic that goes quite low down on the front bumper. This helps with the appearance of your car but also the amount of wind going under the car which is limited and therefore your car becomes a tad more stable.
Bumper
With a bumper kit, you get some larger trim pieces to make your Toyota not only more stable than you would with a lip kit but with a more aggressive appearance too. That’s because bumper kits come with either a front or both a front and a rear bumper that replace the existing ones completely.
Wide-Body
A wide-body kit gets you to replace the fenders and add some side skirts to make your JDM car wider. This doesn’t only make for a meaner look but it also improves the stance and therefore stability of your car. You might have to bolt the trim pieces here in order for them to stay on.
Full-Body
If you can’t make up your mind on which kit to get, you’re probably better going with a full-body. It comes with side skirts, wider fenders, bumpers, a rear diffuser and probably a lip-style spoiler if you opt for it. This way you get the most out of your Toyota in terms of performance and appearance. But you’ll also spend the most.
Types of Body Kit Materials
Fibreglass
The most affordable material a body kit can be made of is fibreglass. As cool as it sounds, fibreglass is actually not the strongest or the most durable material but it is however rather light. This means it can be easily replaced when it does get damaged without costing you a fortune.
Polyurethane
One big advantage of polyurethane body kits over fiberglass ones is that these Toyota performance car parts are much stronger but other than that there isn’t anything else that will make you choose the former over the latter. That’s because polyurethane isn’t as light or able to withstand high temperatures as well as fibreglass all while being more expensive.
Carbon Fibre
The strongest and overall most durable material of the three is carbon fibre. These types of body kits are also the most expensive but these Toyota performance parts won’t buckle or be affected by impacts and UV rays as easily. However, there is still one downside of carbon fibre and that comes from its manufacturing process. If not done right, the polymer that binds the fibres together can be affected by moisture.
Composite
With a composite body kit you have two materials blended together to create a kit that utilizes the best of both worlds. A good example of this is combining fibreglass with any plastic which makes for both a strong and thermally stable material that is extremely durable. The biggest con of these aftermarket Toyota parts is their excessive pricing which is mainly because of the complex manufacturing process.
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